The only positive thing to be said about the announcement of the Test squad to tour Sri Lanka is that it shows some signs that the Australian selectors are figuring out there is some genuine young talent in our cricketing ranks.
Unfortunately on the whole there are the same mistakes being made in the spin bowling ranks, and chief selector, Andrew Hiltich, and the current selection panel remain condemned for their inexplicable decision to drop Australian cricket’s premier batsman, Simon Katich.
The selection of this team just continues what appears to be a culture of confusion, inconsistency and incompetence, which has manifested itself over the past couple of years in the selection of teams and the running of Cricket Australia.
Today’s announcement continues this narrative of problems that have shown up in the controversy of team selection in the last Ashes series, the chopping and changing of our spinners, and the dropping of Katich.
One cannot help but lay the blame for the Katich decision firmly at the feet of the new Australian cricket captain, Michael Clarke. It is well known that Clarke and Katich are not the best of friends.
The most well documented ‘disagreement’ between the two came after the Sydney Test against Pakistan, when Katich grabbed Clarke by the throat after a disagreement over the importance of singing the team song, as reported in The Daily Telegraph (6 February, 2009).
If it is in fact the case that Clarke is responsible for this, then he should go the way of his underpants advertisements – quietly out the back door. If this a slightly obtuse reference, Clarke decided it wasn’t “captainly” to be seen with his pants down, so he ditched the awkward Bonds undies ads.
Other question marks hang over the ongoing problems with the spin bowling selections.
Personally, I love having a lad named Beer in the Australian cricket team, as I suspect does VB, who is sponsoring the tour – aptly named the VB tour of Sri Lanka.
I was disappointed for the sake of this article that Lion Nathan doesn’t own VB, due to the selection of Nathan Lyon. Conspiracy theories were flowing like warm overpriced mid strength lager on day three at the MCG…
One might be starting to wonder if the strategy is to distract the cricket loving public with thoughts of beer until Australian cricket gets back up off the mat. Just throwing it out there…
Enough about beer, let’s talk about Beer. Beer has played only the one Test for an average of 112, claiming only the one wicket. More importantly, Beer’s first class career is nothing to write home about, claiming only 31 wickets at 45.96 in 13 matches.
The other spinner selected is an unknown by the name of Nathan Lyon from South Australia. Having not heard of Lyon before I decided to search for the profile of Nathan Lyon on the great CricInfo site, to learn more about the lad Andrew Hiltich calls “a young man with immense potential.” The alarm bells started ringing when there was not even a mug shot to be seen – and then to see the statistics…
Hiltich points to the reason for Lyon’s selection as: “…he impressed all who have seen him in the last year and bowled beautifully during the one-day component of the A squad’s recent tour where he was named player of the series.”
All one can say is it doesn’t take much to get selected in the Australian Test team these days. I personally cannot judge Lyon, having not seen him bowl, but one has to scratch ones head and maybe pull out a few clumps of hair at the selection of a player who has played only four first class matches (just 1039 balls bowled).
Nathan Hauritz is still the best choice for the Test spinner, having played the same amount of Tests as the two chosen spinners have played first class matches.
To paraphrase from Australia’s 16th Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, there is a light on the hill for suffering supporters of Australian cricket. That light is in our fast bowling stocks.
Ryan Harris has been a stand out of Australian cricket of the past few years in ODIs and recently in Test matches, with an awesome ability to swing the bowl both ways, and a deceptive pace.
Trent Copeland of NSW has proven himself to be amongst the best of the Sheffield Shield’s fast bowlers and has actually earned his spot in this team unlike many others. At first-class level he has the impressive figures of 87 wickets at 21.67.
James Pattinson of Victoria showed talent in the last state season, but once again has only played six first-class matches.
If they are on Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle are amongst the best Test bowlers in the world, but if they are not firing both can be disastrously ineffective, or worse.
As a humble armchair cricket fanatic one can’t help feeling that the Australian Test team should field our best 11, as they are and use the Shield competition to blood players and give them experience before they are given a once converted baggy green.
It is hard to see this team achieving the stated goal from Hiltich in the Cricket Australia media release, to “… strive to get back to the top of world rankings in Test cricket.”
I also cannot resist making suggestions taking into account the realities of the leadership group, in batting order and also depending on form and pitch conditions having either one of the fast bowlers or Nathan Hauritz as 12th man.
Not the Test squad: Simon Katich, Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Brad Hodge, Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Trent Copeland, Ryan Harris, Nathan Hauritz.
Test squad for Sri Lanka: Michael Clarke (c), Shane Watson (vc), Michael Beer, Trent Copeland, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris, Phillip Hughes, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, James Pattinson, Ricky Ponting, Peter Siddle.
The Bush
Roar Guru
Brett/Evan/Shane, T'was an interesting comment by Lyon's SA Coach to about "back players" and "giving them a chance" and not "throwing them away after a Test". (I can't remember of those are exact quotes but it looks better with quotations marks...).
sledgeross
Guest
James, I would say in his latter career Kumble was very defensive, but when he first started in tests his loop and speed through the air were a very aggressive option.
BARGE-ARSE
Guest
Sigh...
jameswm
Guest
Sorry Sledge but I'd call Kumble a defensive spinner. He never turned it. The others I'll grant you.
jameswm
Guest
How does the coach have no influence at all over selections? Or - worse - the coach badly wants someone but the selectors don't pick him. Brett I have no issue with X not being selected, but why in hell does he have a contract?
Lolly
Guest
In Zimbabwe against both SA A and Zim he was getting wickets bowled. That was the most interesting factor for me. He must be able to deceive batsmen..
Lolly
Guest
I don't have a problem with them trying out Lyon, except that it's probably too soon as there was some question marks last season over his ability to complete long games. He's very new to the state cricket world and needs to build up fitness. But none of our spin bowlers set the world alight unless a team like Pakistan is determined to hit them out of the park, so as long as the expectations aren't too high, Lyon might go ok. There are a very few clips of him on Youtube and he has got a very nice action.
Shane Donoghue
Guest
Evan, Nathan Lyon is the best drop off spinner in the country. It doesnt matter how many games he's played. If you are any good then put them in the side I say. Steven O'keefe and Steve Smith are absolute rubbish. Crazy and the X are good without being exceptional and Crazy goes for far too many runs. Beer is hopeless and should not play for Australia ever ever again. How Warnie ever thought he was any good is perplexing. The guy couldnt spin a top. Nathan Lyon on the other hand has excellent flight, good turn and surprisingly good control for a player who hasnt got alot of experience. Last year Kerry O'keefe described Nathan Lyon as the best off spinner in the country. Not a bad rap. As for the batsman, Katich is too old, goodbye. The staggering decision by the selectors is why have they kept Hussey and Ponting. Yes the team needs experience but not at the expense of youth. A tough tour of Sri Lanka is where youngsters can make a name for themselves is just what the doctor ordered. See Shane Warne career file circa 1992 where a spell of 3/11 in the second innings showed the world he was the real deal. 4 tests later he took 7/52 and routed the West Indies at the MCG.
sledgeross
Guest
Im glad Copeland was picked, as he deserves it. Potentially he could develop into a handy allrounder as well. I like Lyon in much the same vein that I like Krezja, hes an attacking spinner. I cant stand the cowardly attitude selectors have in picking defensive spinners. Thats never been teh AUssie way, and look at all the most successful spin bowlers (Singh, Kumble, Warne, Murali, Grimmet, OReilly etc) they have all been aggresive types.
Brett McKay
Guest
that is true Robert, I will concede that. In many ways, I think O'Keefe has been (mistakenly) pigeon-holed as a Twenty20 cricketer, and likewise, he's disadvantaged by firstly playing for NSW (with three Australian spinners in their squads), and secondly by being similarly multi-lingual like Steven Smith. Both currently look like a really useful no.7 bat who can bowl decent spin, so I guess the question is can you play both of them? And I take your point on selections being based on Shield form, but at this time of year, I guess that's a bit difficult. And there was two First Class games played in Zimbabwe, too, not that Lyon or O'Keefe played in them..
Robert Batton
Roar Rookie
Brett - not suggesting for a moment that O'Keefe is better than Warne. Just pointing out that he really couldn't have done much more in Sheild Cricket than he has. Personally I'd be happier if they selected the Test team based on what has been achieved in Shield cricket than what happened in a limited overs series against an understrength Zimbabwe side.
Rob McLean
Guest
Pretty similar to Pup's average when he was selected, Ben G.
Ben G
Guest
At least they did not pick Callum Ferguson. The push from casual viewers continues to astound me. How a guy can be seriously considered as the future with a FC average of 35 I will never know. I genuinely thought Hilditch would be stupid enough to give him a run this series.
Brett McKay
Guest
Evan, I've not seen or heard any updates on Hauritz in a few weeks admittedly, but the last one I did see suggested he would be right for the start of the Australian season, but not the SL tour. If fit, I guess he could be a smokey for South Africa. I'm surprised at your concern about pointing to the Aus A tour. Isn't that the point of 'A' tours, to identify potential Test players, or test fringe players? I think they've got what they were looking for, to be honest. Some players have done well (Paine, Ferguson, Siddle, Hughes, Copeland, Beer, to a degree), some smokeys have excelled (Lyon, Warner), and some with high expectations haven't done themselves any favours at all (Khawaja, Hilfenhaus, Krejza)..
Evan Langdon
Guest
Hi Brett, I have read a bit about Lyon today, and the more I read the more I feel it confirms my opinion that there is no justification to his selection. Roebuck gave him a good write up in today's SMH, and it was a good yarn. I am really concerned that people are pointing to the Australia A tour of Zimbabwe as a reason for selecting a player?! Really concerned! My 'sources' (see Google) tell me that Hauritz is fully fit which should have made him an automatic selection. Those three changes would make a significant difference and go to the heart of the points in the article. Katich is our best batsman and more than not will give us a good start at the top, Hodge is still playing the short forms and would answer a call up, and the putting the best spinner forward. However, I do think Shaun Marsh is a justifiable choice with a good first class record. I would say again that we should be putting the best team on the park and using the Shield to give them the longer format experience.
Matthew Skellett
Guest
Squad is interesting, a bit of a gamble but two positive things might come out of this , if the new guys succeed , then it's slaps on backs all 'round, if NOT then the critical mass of pressure to sack Mr Hilditch and his cronies will be reached and we can happily say goodbye to him hopefully along with Mr Sutherland :-)
Matt F
Guest
Brett, If we're picking a test team based on one-day form it's no wonder we're losing lately! Justin Langer, Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken etc are all examples of players being exceptional in one form whilst being written off in another. SOK's ODD reord as a bowler isn't pretty and neither is Copelands but both have great Shield records which is what should count when picking the test team. As for the Beer/Krejza comparison it just proves what a lot of people have been saying for a while. Krejza is living off that one fluke performance in India. You only have to glance at his domestic record to see how average he actually is. It's just dissapointing that Hauritz still hasn't recovered from the shoulder injury as the longer he spends out of the team, the clearer it becomes that he's the best we have.
Betty B
Guest
One can only wonder - and wish them well in Sri Lanka.
Brett McKay
Guest
my apologies then, I thought you were basing that comment on the stats above..
fisher price
Guest
Ponting and Hussey seem to be lock-ins until they retire. Clarke's probably the same.